Webber: Start time made no difference

The Sepang race was halted after 31 laps when a massive downpour hit the circuit. Earlier in the week some drivers had expressed concern that the decision to move the start back to 5pm local time for the benefit of European television audiences could cause problems with visibility and make the event more vulnerable to bad weather, but Webber believes the timeslot made no difference.

"I'm not so sure you can blame the time of day for today's conditions, as the weather was bad at 3pm too," he said. "It seems it was just one of those days. It's been the mistiest and coolest day I've ever seen in Malaysia for race day."

He also supported the decision to stop the race early.

"The guys made the best call to stop the race when they did," Webber said. "It would have been nice to have had some more laps to give us a crack at getting on the podium - but that's how it is, so I've got mixed emotions. It's dark now, so it was the right call not to make a restart."

However Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was left ruing the time of the red flag, as he reckoned Webber was on for a podium rather than his eventual sixth place.

"If he would have completed that lap, we believe he would have been third in the running order," said Horner.

Sebastian Vettel spun out during the rain shower in the second Red Bull, and was frustrated that he had to retire with a stalled car.

"I was approaching Turn 7 and there was suddenly lots of water, but I was being very cautious," he said. "I lost the car due to aquaplaning and there was nothing I could do. There was too much water and my tyres were not made for those conditions.

"A spin wouldn't have been much of a problem, but the anti-stall didn't work. Without that, I would just have spun, lost some time and that would have been it.

"In the past drivers had three pedals, a throttle, a brake and a clutch and when you were spinning you knew exactly what to do. It's not in our hands anymore, so it's a shame that we have to retire for this stupid reason."